DEVELOPMENT OF A DEVICE FOR INCREASING THE STORAGE DURATION OF FOOD PRODUCTS BY PROCESSING WITH LOW-TEMPERATURE GAS PLASMA

doi: 10.25712/ASTU.2072-8921.2021.01.010

Abstract

The aim of the research is to develop and evaluate the effectiveness of the equipment ‒ multi-discharge plasmatron ‒ to increase the storage time of food products, taking into account the mechanism of action on the microbial cell. The developed device is a multistage resonant plasmatron of an original design, which allows simultaneous production of various types of plasma, such as dielectric barrier discharge plasma, corona discharges, arc discharges and atmospheric plasma jets, using various gases and their mixtures, such as nitrogen, oxygen, helium and argon; and ambient air. The presented device allows you to combine the types and modes of exposure to low-temperature plasma of atmospheric pressure during processing, depending on the technological task of processing food raw materials or food products, in particular, sterilization, pasteurization. To assess the effectiveness of the device, two groups of chilled pork samples were formed. The meat of the control group was not treated with low-temperature gas plasma, the meat samples of the experimental group were treated with plasma for 15 minutes, placing the meat in a special container, which was filled with ionized argon, gas ionization was carried out with discharges with a frequency of 450 to 550 kHz. The positive effect of the processing of chilled meat with low-temperature plasma of atmospheric pressure on the preservation has been established.